Activating Vacant Spaces

Living Lots NYC is a clearinghouse of information that New Yorkers can use to find, unlock and protect our shared resources. 596 Acres started with vacant lots and remains committed to helping fill these holes.

Reviewing Accountability

Urban Reviewer catalogs over 150 urban renewal plans that NYC adopted to get federal funding for acquiring land, relocating the people living there, demolishing the structures and making way for new public and private development.

Gaining Access to Public Buildings

NYCommons helps New Yorkers impact decisions about public land and buildings in their neighborhoods. It is a collaboration between Common Cause/NY, the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, and 596 Acres.

Save the date: Saturday, March 31 from 2:45pm to 4pm, we’ll hold space for a Community Land Access Story Circle at the daylong community gardening conference, GreenThumb GrowTogether, at Borough of Manhattan Community College (119 Chambers Street in Manhattan). Event information here.

ACT NOW TO PROTECT OUR PLACES FROM THE TAX LIEN SALE
Day cares, houses of workshop, veteran’s resource centers, theaters and more—nonprofits own places in the service of their missions, and are exempt from paying property taxes as per NYS law. Administrative errors are putting hundreds of places like these that NYers rely on in the hands of Wall Street investors each year via the Department of Finance Tax Lien Sale. Learn more here. Here’s what you can do to #protectourplaces:

Help pass Intro 0245, new legislation re-introduced by Councilmember Reynoso last week that will exempt nonprofit-owned properties from the tax lien sale. Let’s get it done before the 2018 sale is prepared this May. Find out how here.

Join the #ProtectOurPlaces coalition with your block association, house of worship, advocacy organization, community garden, cooperative enterprise or other neighborhood group to amplify the call! Contact organizers@596acres.org or (718) 316-6092 X 3 to join. Get a head start by sharing the press stories here on social media.

NEWS FROM THE ORGANIZING ACRES
Midwood, Brooklyn – Kids playing soccer in the street outside a decrepit city-owned building on E 15th Street and Avenue I (photo here) want it to be a real soccer field, with a way to keep their balls from falling into the seldom-used freight train tracks below. NYC used to lease this land and building to the MTA as a power station, but by 2012 both decided it was no longer needed. Join your neighbors in planning for its future! Sign up to Organize for updates and next steps here: livinglotsnyc.org/lot/6000030014/

Jamaica, Queens – In honor of a resident of the block who passed on, a neighbor is organizing to create a community garden to replace a vacant Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) lot where the street ends at 107-70 Watson Place. Of the city agencies, DCAS tends not to make plans for public land, so nothing is likely to happen to it until another agency requests jurisdiction; Parks can do so at the request of neighbors with a great idea! Join Amanda in collecting signatures from neighbors in favor of a garden here by printing and using this petition. Read next steps and get involved by contacting them at ashleyamanda75@gmail.com, (917) 528-5013, or signing up to Organize here: livinglotsnyc.org/lot/4102520140/

Far Rockaway, Queens – NYC Parks responded with gratitude and enthusiasm to local advocates’ design for the future park at Nameoke and Augustina Aves! Because of these neighbors’ campaign to transform this vacant Department of Sanitation lot into a community farm, they were able to stop the City from selling it as planned, and commit instead to funding a future green space. The letter (pdf here) says residents’ design will inform NYC Parks’ work, which is slated to begin in 2019. For updates, sign up to Organize here: livinglotsnyc.org/lot/4155340070/

OUR LOTS WITH ACCESS
Bedstuy, Brooklyn – Myrtle Village Green (at Kent) is in the early stages of assigning plots for the 2018 growing season! If you live near the garden and would like to grow with us this year, email them at mrytleparkorg@gmail.com with your info and your interests to get on the list. Connect on facebook here.

No 501c3? No Problem! Introduction to Fiscal Sponsorship, a workshop by Partnerships for Parks is this Wednesday, February 7 at 6:30pm at the Arsenal Building in Manhattan (850 5th Ave, 3rd floor). If your group is looking for more fundraising opportunities, but you’re unsure if becoming a nonprofit is right for your group, this workshop will detail how to find a fiscal sponsor. More information and register here.

GREEN FOR YOUR GREENThis Saturday, February 10 from 10am to 3pm at the Old Stone House (336 3rd Street between 4th and 5th Aves) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, join the NY Permaculture Exchange, the Park Slope Permaculture Guild and the Old Stone House & Washington Park for their 13th annual seed swap! Bring your seeds to swap them. All ages welcome. Event information here.

This Saturday, February 10 from 12pm to 3pm, GrowNYC is co-hosting Flatbush Stop ‘N’ Swap at PS 269 (1957 Nostrand between E30th and 31st Street)! Bring clean, portable, reusable items you no longer need and take home something new-to-you. No one is required to bring something to take something. Books, toys, fashionable clothing, housewares, electronics & more! More information here. Not in Flatbush? Find a February/March GreenThumb community swap near you here.